CHAPTER IX
HOLDING UP "L'ÉGALITÉ"
Arnold Cardyke was the first to recover from the effect of the noxious vapour. He had been sleeping nearest to the entrance to the conning-tower, and had thus more air than his companions. For some moments he lay wondering where he was. He tried to call out, but no sound came from his parched lips. Then, between him and the reddish light that seemed to encircle him, came a huge dark object that presently resolved itself into the shape of a man—one of the pirate officers. Good heavens! The partial truth swept across his mind. Desperately he struggled to rise and arouse his comrades, but realising that he was bound and weak, he rolled helplessly across the body of Hokosuka.
The weight of the mid.'s frame expelled a quantity of the chloroform fumes from the Japanese's chest, and with a grunt Hokosuka opened his eyes. In his effort to dislodge Cardyke the Asiatic prodded Fielding on the back, and the sub., already well on the road to consciousness, also began to realise his position.
"What's wrong, Cardyke?" he asked. "Why, I——" Then the truth was revealed in all its unpleasantness. He and his comrades were once more in the power of Juan Cervillo and his piratical crew.
"We've made a mess of it, sir," said Cardyke, who contrived to raise himself into a sitting posture.
"And all my fault," groaned the sub. "I fell asleep at my post. I ought to be——"
"We were drugged, or something like that," interrupted the mid. "I can't see that any blame can be attached to you. What's done cannot be helped, although it may be undone, in spite of the proverb."
Fielding sat up, and found that his ankles and wrists were secured by leather straps. His head seemed to spin round like a top for a few moments, but gradually the sensation of nausea left him. It did not take him long to discover that the Independencia had altered her course. By the position of the sun the sub. concluded that the direction in which she was heading was approximately N.W. by N. As far as he could command the horizon there were no other ships in sight—only a vast expanse of Atlantic rollers.
"Here comes that scoundrel," exclaimed Cardyke, and turning his head Fielding saw Juan Cervillo approaching.
The Spaniard, who never could boast of good looks, had his appearance somewhat disfigured from the result of the blow he had received in the sortie from the conning-tower, while his greasy features were sallow from the effects of the chloroform which he had inhaled.
With a supercilious grin Juan Cervillo stood in front of his prostrate captives, gloating over their plight. He could, he imagined, subject them to indignity with impunity now, but he had yet to learn caution.
Mukyima was stealthily regarding the Spaniard out of the corners of his narrow eyes. Slowly the lithe body and limbs of the Japanese contracted. Then like a stone from a catapult, Mukyima, bound as he was, hurled himself upon his foe.
Juan Cervillo saw the human thunderbolt flying towards him just in the nick of time. He gave a hurried leap aside, caught his foot in a ring-bolt, and subsided in a most undignified manner upon a particularly aggressive fairlead. As for the Japanese, he had taken the precaution of tucking his head well forward. His shoulders came in contact with a canvas "storm-dodger," and, rebounding, he, too, flopped on the deck.
Juan Cervillo did not wait for a second spring from the wiry Jap, but regaining his feet rushed away shouting for assistance. Half-a-dozen of the strongest of the pirate crew had a tough struggle ere they overpowered Mukyima; but they did it at length, lashing the Asiatic to a capstan-bar so that he was as helpless as a log.
"Me teach you!" hissed the pirate captain. "You dogs!—when I done, den ober de side I put you!"
Turning to his men he gave a lengthy order. Mukyima was borne away for'ard, the other captives, including the coxswain, were unceremoniously bundled below, and placed in the same cabin from which they had before escaped.
It did not take the sub. and his comrades long to free themselves of the straps that bound them. Fielding's first act, in recovering the use of his limbs, was to hasten to the scuttle. The pirates had taken due precautions this time. The glass had been removed, and a massive iron bar, placed across the frame of the scuttle, was secured by means of the lock-nut, the thread of which had been bent and burred so that it was impossible, without the aid of a file or hack-saw, to remove the bar from its position.
"Well, we can look out, and see what's going on; that's one comfort," exclaimed Fielding, optimistically. "What have you found, Cardyke?" For the midshipman, rummaging in a locker, had discovered a loaf of bread, some ship's biscuits, a jar of water, and a tin pannikin.
"We won't starve just yet, in any case," observed the mid.
The pangs of hunger had rounded off the unappetising appearance of the stale loaf and the "hard tack," and the water, though not particularly fresh, tasted sweet to the parched mouths of the hostages.
"Poison?" asked Oki, interrogatively.
"I think not," replied Fielding. "If they wanted to choke us off they would have done so before now; besides, the food doesn't look tempting enough. A sumptuous repast would be more suspicious."
About four o'clock the cruiser eased down. Knowing that something was about to happen, the captives took turns at looking through the scuttle. For some time nothing beyond sky and sea was visible, but when the Independencia described a half circle Cardyke announced that she had compelled a huge liner to heave-to.
"A Frenchman, by Jove!" exclaimed Fielding. "Now what's the game—more scuttling?"
The transatlantic liner's decks were crowded with passengers, who were regarding the cruiser with the greatest interest, for the Independencia had hoisted the white ensign, and with their faith in the entente cordiale, the Frenchmen never for one moment harboured any suspicion.
Suddenly a four-pounder boomed out, and a shell hissed betwixt the huge funnels of L'Égalité. Like a crowd of startled rabbits, the passengers rushed pell-mell for the companion ladders. Had war suddenly broken out between Great Britain and France? They were not long left in doubt. As soon as the liner came to a standstill, two boats were lowered from the cruiser. Into them tumbled fifty men, all armed to the teeth.
"Ciel!" gasped the astounded French captain. "They are not John Bull's bluejackets. They are pirates."
His worst suspicions were confirmed when the white ensign was struck and a red flag hoisted in its place, while slowly the 'midships barbette on the starboard side, actuated by manual power, was turned till its pair of 12 in. guns were trained upon the luckless liner.
The French captain did not know that the huge weapons were without breech-blocks, but the frowning muzzles were far more terrifying to him than the quick-firers. Unresistingly he allowed the boats to come alongside, and the lawless mob to swarm over the liner's lofty sides.
The pirates went about their work in a systematic manner. Four of them went straight to the wireless-room, and interrupting an urgent call for aid, drove out the operators, and put the delicate mechanism out of action. Others, making the captain prisoner, and driving the rest of the officers into the smoking-room, compelled the former to send for the ship's papers. The whole of the specie and bullion was transferred to the boats, together with the wealthiest and most influential of the passengers. This done the terrified first and second-class passengers were made to hand over their money and jewellery, the steerage being left unmolested.
Very little resistance was shown by the passengers. An American millionaire who had made a pile in Nevada, promptly whipped out a six-shooter, vowing he'd send the cowardly Dagoes to blazes. He was quick and deadly with his pistol, and four of the pirates pitched forward on the floor of the saloon; but one man against a score was too long odds, and the tough old backwoodsman fell riddled with bullets.
Having taken all the bullion and specie, together with the hostages, to the Independencia, the pirates proceeded to cripple the engines, leaving the liner helpless in the Atlantic. But they had not done with their prize, for directly the two boats returned to the cruiser Juan Cervillo ordered L'Égalité to hoist out her own boats, fill them with provisions and stores, and bring them alongside the Independencia. Under a threat that the liner would be sunk if the demand were not complied with, the captain of L'Égalité hastened to carry out Cervillo's order.
Two hours later, with her store-rooms filled to their utmost capacity, and nearly a million and a quarter pounds' worth of additional booty in her strong-room, the Independencia bade an ironical farewell to the helpless liner.
From their place of confinement Fielding and his companions had watched the work of plunder and wanton destruction. They had seen the easy way by which the cruiser had replenished her stores, and the continuation of the policy of bringing off hostages to the ship in order to prevent any punitive vessel from firing at the modern buccaneer.
Cardyke turned to the sub.
"This can't go on for long," he remarked. "What will the end be?"
"Goodness only knows," rejoined Fielding; "but we've a tough time before us!"